Rosewood at the WEA, 3/8/14

Rosewood had another gig at the West End Alley in Pottstown last Saturday night. As before, we were scheduled to play from 7:00-9:00. As an added wrinkle, we were playing our first gig with new drummer Bruce. We knew that space would be tight, but we were hoping it could work.

The plan was to arrive at 6pm, but it was more like 6:15 before everyone got there and unpacked. I was there with our #1 fans, Darling Wife and Brother Chris. Darling Wife hadn't made a reservation, and we were told that the place was booked solid, but that they could sit at the bar. That was fine - and it was exciting to hear that we'd have a full house.

We didn't have much time to set up, and we needed every second of it. Sandy's mic wasn't working, and Chip feverishly troubleshot it - finally pinpointing it was a connection failure in her vocalizer machine (that lets her harmonize with herself.) He rigged an emergency fix, and she was good to go.

Bruce set up a very small stand-up kit at the side of the stage - and then was told at about 6:59 that he couldn't be there. He frantically put a snare drum on the stage and stood next to it - which allowed him to do *something*. So it was Murphy's Law in action, but at 7pm we were ready to go.

The place was indeed full, and it was the most energized crowd we've yet played for. People were singing along, and shouting compliments and encouragement. During the second set, some ladies jumped up to dance - and Brother Chris was up in a flash to join them. It was a blast, and two hours sailed by.

We said goodnight after the last song, and people yelled for one more song. So we played another. And then another. And then one more, and then we said we were really done.

The post-mortem was that it was a super-fun evening. The technical problems with the vocal mic continued off and on. It wasn't really evident to the listeners - but we knew it wasn't as good as it could have been. We need to do our sound check earlier before a gig - this is two straight times where we've been fixing problems right up until the last minute.

Bruce made the best of a bad situation, but I think we're going to have to be a trio at this venue going forward - there's simply not room for a fourth person.

There are a number of exciting things coming up, and all details are here.